The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has a piece on a local bar owner who took fending off bums into his own hands:

Rufus Terrill, who owns a bar in downtown Atlanta called O’Terrill’s, has grown weary of the drug dealers and vagrants he says frequent the neighborhood. Rather than put the police on speed dial or hire private security guards, Terrill has created his own private one robot security squad to keep the undesirable elements away.

The unnamed robot, affectionately referred to as either Robo-Cop or Bum-Bot by those who have seen it in action, is a hodge podge of off-the-shelf parts controlled by Terrill and a remote control. The four-foot tall, 300-pound body consists of an old smoker mounted atop an electric scooter. He’s mounted a spot light, infrared camera, loud speaker, and water cannon inside the chassis, then wrapped the whole thing in rubber and painted it a menacing black.

Terrill sends the bot to the neighboring daycare center while he remains safely positioned up the block. Using a walkie-talkie, he instructs “suspects” to leave and informs them they are trespassing. If they refuse to leave, the bot then lets loose with the water cannon.

Remember, kids, unprovoked water cannon use can be considered assault – [via] Link.

Becky Stern (sternlab.org is a DIY guru and director of wearable electronics at Adafruit. She publishes a new project video every week and hosts a live show on YouTube. Formerly Becky was Senior Video Producer for MAKE. Becky lives in Brooklyn, NY and belongs to art groups Free Art & Technology (“release early, often, and with rap music”) and Madagascar Institute (“fear is never boring”).

macegr

When the digital generation grows old, I guess yelling at kids to get off your lawn isn’t enough anymore.

wednesday next

So I don’t get it. Are the bums and drug dealers four years old? How does terrorizing a day care center make a bar more secure?

Michael

As soon as they figure out that he’s controlling the robot from around the corner, he’s going to get stabbed.